Question

Difficulty: HardDeploying and Managing Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE) Clusters and Workloads

An operations team is establishing deployment workflows and node architecture for a new fault-tolerant, stateless batch-processing workload on Google Kubernetes Engine (GKE). Engineers need to manage cluster resources from local administrative workstations while minimizing compute infrastructure costs. Which TWO actions should the team implement to fulfill these requirements?

  1. Execute `gcloud container clusters get-credentials` on local workstations to generate and update cluster credentials in the `kubeconfig` file.Answer
  2. Provision a node pool configured with Spot Virtual Machines to host the stateless batch-processing workload at reduced cost.Answer
  3. C
    Configure `gcloud config set container/cluster` on local workstations to automatically authorize and route `kubectl` commands to the cluster control plane.
  4. D
    Configure the GKE Cluster Autoscaler to dynamically add and remove pod replicas based on incoming batch queue volume.

Answer

The team must run `gcloud container clusters get-credentials` to configure local workstation authentication and deploy a Spot VM node pool for the stateless batch processing service.
Executing `gcloud container clusters get-credentials` updates the local `kubeconfig` file with the required control plane endpoint and certificate data so `kubectl` can issue commands to the cluster. Additionally, provisioning a node pool with Spot Virtual Machines allows fault-tolerant, stateless batch workloads to run at significantly reduced compute costs while handling preemption gracefully.

Step-by-Step Solution

1
Establish cluster authentication on local administrative workstations.
The local `~/.kube/config` file is updated with API server endpoints and security tokens.
The `kubectl` CLI relies on `kubeconfig` entries generated by `gcloud container clusters get-credentials` to securely communicate with the GKE control plane.
2
Select and provision the compute node pool model for the stateless batch processing workload.
A Spot VM node pool is added to the cluster.
Spot VMs offer substantial cost savings and are ideal for stateless, fault-tolerant batch workloads capable of handling sudden node termination.

Key Concept

GKE Workstation Credential Configuration and Spot VM Node Pools
Estimated Time:2m 0s
Rate this question